Of death, contagion, and unnatural fleep;
A greater Power, than we can contradict,
Hath thwarted our intents; come, come away;
Thy husband in thy bofom there lies dead,
And Paris too- Come, I'll difpofe of thee
Among a fisterhood of holy Nuns:

Stay not to question, for the Watch is coming.
Come, go, good Juliet; I dare no longer ftay. [Exit.
Jul. Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.
What's here? a cup, clos'd in my true love's hand ?
Poison, I fee, hath been his timeless end.

Oh churl, drink all, and leave no friendly drop
To help me after? I will kifs thy lips;

Haply, fome poifon yet doth hang on them;
To make me die with a restorative.

Thy lips are warm.

Enter Boy and Watch.

Watch. Lead boy, which way?

Jul. Yea, noife?

Then I'll be brief. O happy dagger!

[Finding a dagger.

This is thy fheath, there ruft and let me die.

[Kills herself. Boy. This is the place; there, where the torch doth burn. Watch. The ground is bloody. Search about the church-yard;

Go, fome of you, whom e'er you find, attach.
Pitiful fight! here lies the County flain,
And Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead,
Who here hath lain these two days buried.
Go tell the Prince, run to the Capulets,
Raife up the Montagues; fome others, search.
We fee the ground whereon thefe woes do lie:
But the true ground of all these piteous woes
We cannot without circumstance defcry.

Enter fome of the Watch, with Balthafar.

2 Watch. Here's Romeo's man, we found him in the church yard.

1 Watch.

1 Watch. Hold him in fafety, till the Prince comes hither.

3

Enter another Watchman, with Friar Lawrence.

Watch. Here is a Friar that trembles, fighs and weeps: We took this mattock and this fpade from him, As he was coming from this church-yard fide. 1 Watch. A great fufpicion: ftay the Friar too. Enter the Prince, and attendants.

Prince. What mifadventure is so early up, That calls our perfon from our morning's reft ? Enter Capulet and Lady Capulet.

Cap. What should it be, that they so fhriek abroad? La. Cap. The people in the street cry, Romeo ; Some, Juliet; and fome, Paris; and all run With open out-cry tow'rd our monument.

Prince. What fear is this, which startles in your ears? Watch. Sovereign, here lies the County Paris flain, And Romeo dead, and Juliet (dead before) Warm and new kill'd.

[comes.

Prince. Search, seek, and know, how this foul murder Watch. Here is a Friar, and flaughter'd Romeo's man, With inftruments upon them, fit to open

Thefe dead men's tombs.

[bleeds! Cap. Oh, heav'n! oh, wife! look how our daughter This dagger hath mista'en; for lo! the sheath Lies empty on the back of Montague, The point mif-fheath'd in my daughter's bofom. La. Cap. Oh me, this fight of death is as a bell, That warns my old age to a fepulchre.

Enter Montague.

Prince. Come, Montague, for thou art early up, To see thy son and heir now early down.

Mon. Alas, my liege, my wife is dead to-night; Grief of my fon's exile hath ftopt her breath: What further woe confpires against my age? Prince. Look, and thou fhalt fee.

5

Mon.

Mon. Oh, thou.untaught! what manners is in this, To prefs before thy father to a grave?

Prince. Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while, Till we can clear thefe ambiguities,

And know their fpring, their head, their true descent;
And then will I be general of your woes,

And lead you even to death. Meantime forbear,
And let mifchance be flave to patience,
Bring forth the parties of fufpicion,

Fri. I am the greatest, able to do least,
Yet moft fufpected; as the time and place
Doth make against me, of this direful murder;
And here I ftand both to impeach and purge
Myfelf condemned, and myfelf excus'd.

Prince. Then say at once what thou dost know in this.
Fri. I will be brief, for my fhort date of breath
Is not fo long as is a tedious tale.

Romeo, there dead, was hufband to that Juliet ;
And fhe, there dead, that Romeo's faithful wife:
I married them; and their ftol'n marriage-day
Was Tybalt's dooms-day, whofe untimely death
Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from this city;
For whor, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined.
You, to remove that fiege of grief from her,
Betrothed and would have married her perforce
To County Paris. Then comes the to me,
And, with wild looks, bid me devife fome means
To rid her from this fecond marriage;

Or, in my cell, there would fhe kill herself.
Then gave
I her (fo tutor❜d by my art)
A fleeping potion, which fo took effect
As I intended; for it wrought on her

The form of death. Meantime I writ to Romeo
That he should hither come, as this dire night,
To help to take her from her borrowed grave;
Being the time the potion's force fhould ceafe,
But he which bore my letter, Friar John,
Was ftaid by accident; and yefternight
Return'd my letter back; then all alone,
At the prefixed hour of her awaking,
VOL. VIII.

E

Came

Came I to take her from her kindred's vault;
Meaning to keep her clofely at my cell,
"Till I conveniently could fend to Romeo.
But when I came, (fome minute ere the time
Of her awaking) here untimely lay
The noble Paris and true Romeo dead.
She wakes, and I entreated her come forth,
And bear this work of heav'n with patience :
But then a noife did fcare me from the tomb,
And she, too defp'rate, would not go with me;
But, as it feems did violence on herself.
All this I know, and to the marriage
Her nurfe is privy: but if aught in this
Miscarried by my fault, let my old life
Be facrific'd, fome hour before the time,
Unto the rigour of feverest law.

Prince. We fill have known thee for an holy man. Where's Romeo's man? what can he fay to this? Balth. I brought my mafter news of Juliet's death, And then in poft he came from Mantua

To this fame place, to this fame monument.
This letter he early bid me give his father,
And threatened me with death, going to the vault,
If I departed not, and left him there.

Prince. Give me the letter, I will look on it. Where is the County's page, that rais'd the watch? Sirrah, what made your mafter in this place?

Page. He came with flowers to ftrew his lady's grave, And bid me ftand aloof, and fo I did:

Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb,
And, by and by, my master drew on him;
And then I ran away to call the watch.

Prince. This letter doth make good the Friar's words,
Their courfe of love, the tidings of her death:
And here he writes, that he did buy a poifon
Of a poor 'pothecary, and therewithal
Came to this vault to die, and lie with Juliet.
Where be these enemies? Capulet! Montague!
See, what a fcourge is laid upon your hate,

That heav'n finds means to kill your joys with love!

And

And I, for winking at your difcords too,

Have loft a brace of kinfmen: all are punished!
Cap. O brother Montague, give me thy hand,
This is my daughter's jointure; for no more
Can I demand.

Mon. But I can give thee more,

For I will raife her statue in pure gold;
That while Verona by that name is known,
There fhall no figure at that rate be set,
As that of true and faithful Juliet.

Cap. As rich fhall Romeo's by his lady lye:
Poor facrifices of our enmity!

Prince. A gloomy peace this morning with it brings,
The fun for forrow will not fhew his head;

Go hence to have more talk of these fad things

Some fhall be pardon'd, and fome punished.

For never was a ftory of more woe,
Than this of Juliet, and her Romeo.

[Exeunt omnes.

E 2